ADDRESS: 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



k Societjj for SBromoting %%xi 



SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY, 



FEBRUARY 11th, 1860. 



BY THE PRESIDENT, 



CRAIG RIDDLE. 



PRINTED DY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, No. 607 SANSOM STREET. 

1860. 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



IJjjMcIpJjia jSccictg for promoting Agriculture, 



SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY, 



lA 



FEBRUARY 11th, 1860 



BY THE PRESIDENT, 

CRAIG BIDDLB. 



PRINTED BY ORDER OP THE SOCIETY. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
KING & BAIRD, PRINTERS, No. 607 SANSOM STREET 






H* 



I860. 



Z2-//3/2. 



At a meeting of the "Philadelphia Society, for Promoting Agriculture," 
held February 11th, 1860, 

In accordance with a resolution of the Sociity, an Address was delivered 
by the President, Ckaig Biddle, Esq. 

Whereupon, Resolved, unanimously, That the thanks of the Society be 
and they are hereby tendered to the President, for his excellent and 
eloquent Address, and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the same 
for publication. 

(Fr,om the Minutes.) 

ALFRED L. KENNEDY, 

Secretary. 



%A&XtM* 



I feel that I violate no confidence, and am guilty of 
no indiscretion in publicly mentioning that our Society 
is, to-day, seventy-five years of age. Corporations have 
no feeling upon this point. Even in the lives of indi- 
viduals, there is a period when all sensitiveness on the 
subject is at an end, and it becomes a matter of pride to 
be able to recount the occurrences of almost a century, 
and to describe the actors in its varied scenes. And when 
the recollections of that period recall no act of the associa- 
tion or individual which reflection condemns, but much 
that coming time will applaud, there certainly can be 
no j uster subject of pride, and no more worthy topic of 
self gratulation. We are the oldest Agricultural So- 
ciety in America. I feel, therefore, that I may upon 
this day revert to a few of the incidents of our past 
career, and endeavor to stimulate our members to re- 
newed exertion, by holding up to their contempla- 
tion the meritorious and patriotic services of their 
predecessors. I say patriotic services, for our Society, 
as you know, was not formed as a guild, by parties in- 
terested to promote their trade, but its originators were 
public spirited men from every walk of life, hoping by 
its operation to benefit themselves only in common with 
their fellow countrymen. Their names are so familiar 
to every American ear, that the mere mention of them 
brings before us a crowd of associations, connecting 



6 ADDRESS. 

them with almost every part of the history of our 
country. Colonel George Morgan, General John Cad- 
walader, Colonel John Nixon, distinguished in her 
military service ; Robert Morris, Thomas Willing, 
Samuel Meredith, eminent as merchants and patriots ; 
James Wilson, Edward Shippen, Richard Peters, orna- 
ments of the bench and bar; Benjamin Rush, John 
Jones, Adam Kuhn, George Logan, heads of the medi- 
cal profession ; and George Clymer, Henry Hill, Phi- 
lemon Dickinson, Samuel Vaughan, Tench Francis, 
Charles Thompson, Richard Wells, Samuel Powel, Lam- 
bert Cadwalader, John B. Bordley, all distinguished in 
either local or national concerns. 

Such were the twenty-three men who met together 
in Philadelphia, on the 11th of February, 1785, in 
Water street, then the head-quarters of business and 
fashion, to form " The Philadelphia Society for the Pro- 
motion of Agriculture." In the minutes of the Society 
it is interesting to trace the energy and intelligence 
with which these soldiers, lawyers, and earnest men of 
various callings, went at their work. At the very next 
meeting, a code of by-laws was formed, which, with 
trifling alterations, now governs the Society. On the 
fifth of April, not two months afterwards, we find pre- 
sented a list of premiums to be offered, which, whether 
we regard the subjects, or the amount of the awards, are 
alike remarkable and praiseworthy. 

1. For the best experiment made of a course of crops, 
either large or small, on not less than four acres, agree- 
able to the principles of the English mode of farming, 
a piece of plate valued at $200; for the experiment next 
in merit, $100. Certificates to be produced by the 20th 
December, 1790. 



ADDRESS. 7 

2. The importance of complete farm or fold yards, for 
sheltering and folding cattle, and of a preferable mode 
of conducting the same for procuring great quantities 
of compost, or mixed dung or manure. A gold medal. 
For the scond best, a silver medal. 

3. For the best method of counteracting the injuri- 
ous effects of frost, in heaving or spewing up the ground 
and exposing roots of wheat to the drying winds of 
spring. A gold and silver medal. 

Also, gold and silver medals for 

4. The best method of raising hogs from the pig in 
pens or sties. 

5. The best method of recovering worn-out fields. 

6. The best experiment in trench ploughing — not 
less than ten inches deep. 

7. The best field of clover. 

8. The greatest quantity and variety of good manure 
collected in one year, and best managed, from materials 
common to most farms. 

9. The best information, founded in actual experi- 
ence, for preventing damages to crops by insects. 

10. The best comparative experiments on the culture 
of wheat, by sowing it, in the common broad-cast way, 
by drilling it, and by setting the grain, with a machine, 
equidistant; the quantities of seed and produce, pro- 
portioned to the ground, being noticed. 

11. An account of a vegetable food that maybe well 
procured and preserved, and that best increases milk in 
cows in March and April, founded in experience. 

12. The best method of raising the white and other 
thorn from seed on clay ground. 

13. The greatest quantity of ground well fenced in 
locust trees or poles. 



8 ADDRESS. 

Thus the very first premiums of the Society consisted 
of three hundred dollars, in money or plate, and twelve 
gold and twelve silver medals. The money for this, let 
it not be forgotten, came out of the pockets of the mem- 
bers themselves, for the days of cattle shows had not 
then been inaugurated, and trotting horses and fire- 
engines had not as yet contributed their valuable at- 
tractions to the cause of Agriculture. The responses 
received unfortunately do not seem to have set at rest 
the questions they respectively discussed, for we might, 
to-morrow, offer the same prizes, and probably receive 
as various replies. 

In fact, so slow is the progress of agricultural science, 
that most of the subjects are the standard topics of dis- 
cussion in the numerous agricultural periodicals of the 
present day. 

In 1789 the Society consisted of one hundred and 
thirty-three resident and one hundred and forty-six non- 
resident members, and its numbers were constantly 
swelled with names of distinction in every walk of life, 
not only from Pennsylvania but from all parts of the 
United States. Most of them were active members, 
each contributing what he could of information or ex- 
perience to the common fund; and the memoirs of the 
Society are full of the most valuable essays, experiments 
and suggestions. Judge Peters, one of the few practical 
farmers among its early members, appears to have been 
untiring, and, both by precept and example, never ceased 
to urge forward everything of practical agricultural in- 
terest. 

One of the first efforts of the Society was, both by 
correspondence, and by obtaining a general law of our 
State for their encouragement, to stimulate the forma- 



ADDRESS. 9 

tion of kindred associations. This project was attended 
with eminent success ; and the Patent Office Report of 
1858 informs us that there are now in actual existence 
in the United States seven hundred and ninety-nine 
Agricultural Societies, forty-three Horticultural, and 
seventy Agricultural and Mechanical Societies, making 
a total of nine hundred and twelve ; while in Pennsyl- 
vania alone, there are sixty-five Agricultural, three 
Horticultural, and three Agricultural and Mechanical 
Societies, in all seventy-one. 

At a meeting of the Society in January, 1794, I find 
Mr. Bordley, Mr. George Clymer, Mr. Peters and Mr. 
Timothy Pickering, appointed "a Committee to prepare 
the outlines of a plan for establishing a State Society 
for the Promotion of Agriculture ; connecting with it 
the education of youth in the knowledge of that most 
important art, while they are acquiring other useful 
knowledge, suitable for the agricultural citizens of the 
State." On the 28th of the same month, the Commit- 
tee reported the draft of a petition to the Legislature for 
an Act of Incorporation, together with an elaborate 
plan for effecting the end in view. It has been reserved 
to our day to see both suggestions carried out in " The 
Pennsylvania State Society," and in the "Farmers' High 
School," now in successful operation in Centre County. 

On the latter institution, I look with more hopeful- 
ness than upon any public plan yet suggested for the 
promotion of Agriculture. Aside from the benefits to 
be derived from it, as a place of education for youth in 
practical agriculture, it can be made to do for us, in 
connection with the Board proposed by our Society, 
more than any department of the State government. 
It can collect and diffuse information, try all new pro 



10 ADDRESS. 

cesses, plants and manures, and serve generally as an 
agricultural centre. I trust that agriculturalists through- 
out the State, will not permit so hopeful a project to fail 
for want of funds ; and that our Legislature will make 
their past contributions doubly valuable by another ap- 
propriation sufficiently large to place the institution in 
a position of the most extended usefulness. 

u ' The promotion of veterinary knowledge and in- 
struction, both scientific and practical," was another 
cherished object of the Society. And we find that dis- 
tinguished physician, Dr. Benjamin Rush, lending his 
valuable influence for its promotion, and delivering, on 
the 2d of November, 1807, a discourse before the So- 
ciety on that subject. He says: "I have lived to see 
the Medical School of Philadelphia emerge from small 
beginnings, and gradually advance to its present posi- 
tion, but I am not yet satisfied with its prosperity and 
fame, nor shall I be so, until I see the veterinary science 
taught in our University." Few of his profession seem 
so willing, in later days, to acknowledge its claims, or 
to repay the obligations of their science to the study 
of the anatomy, physiology, and diseases of domestic 
animals. 

Dr. James Mease, in 1813, made another effort to 
engage public attention to this subject, by an able ad- 
dress, but without success. This is still a want among 
us, but the subject has lately received a new impulse ; 
a Veterinary College has been established, and should it 
receive from the Society and the public that encourage- 
ment which such an institution eminently merits, there is 
no doubt that the disadvantage under which this branch 
of medical science has labored, will soon be removed. In 
the diseases of horses we have some practitioners, but in 



ADDRESS. 11 

those of other domestic animals, more difficult of treat- 
ment, few, if any. In these days, when the price of 
bulls and rams is equal to that formerly paid only for 
race horses, and when fineness of breeding often pro- 
duces delicacy of constitution, the want is severely felt. 
The opinions of a college of reputation would also tend 
to settle that troublesome branch of litigation, horse 
disputes, and their certificate would probably take the 
place of that worthless reliance, a " warranty," which is 
generally conclusive of nothing but the insolvency of 
the person who gives it. 

A project of the Society, in which they were more 
successful, was the construction of a bridge over the 
Schuylkill river. An enterprise not exactly of an agri- 
cultural character, to common apprehension, but the 
importance of which they very early perceived. They 
fully appreciated the fact, that anything which would 
tend to bring the producer and consumer together must 
necessarily be beneficial to both. It was the first under- 
taking of the kind in America, over a deep tide water, 
and was the only covered bridge of any size in the 
world. The minor difficulties of all kinds to be obvi- 
ated, were without number, but they all yielded to the 
energy of Judge Peters, then our President. A com- 
pany was incorporated, of which he was at the head, 
and the bridge was finally perfected, and opened to the 
public in 1805. Incredible as it may appear at the 
present day, it was not only built without municipal, 
State, or County aid, but the Company actually paid the 
city $40,000 for the site on which it was erected. It 
was built, too, without bonds, mortgages, or preferred 
stock ; and consequently, in after years, when it came 
to be transferred to the City, there was no doubt as to 



12 ADDRESS. 

its ownership. There was, I believe, a small " floating 
debt," which, in the erection of a structure of this kind, 
may perhaps be excusable, but it was soon paid off in 
full. It is not easy, in our day, to realize all the diffi- 
culties of such an undertaking. Capital was scarce, 
skill and experience rare, and prejudice, as usual, active. 
It will help us, however, to appreciate these obstacles, 
when we consider that at the present time, with all our 
ingenious devices for building without money, a similar 
structure cannot be erected over the same stream, at 
the terminus of the main thoroughfare of a city of over 
half a million of inhabitants, although, the city, the 
citizens, and even a passenger railway company de- 
sire it. 

Probably, however, the greatest boon which our So 
ciety has been enabled to bestow upon the country, 
was the introduction of gypsum, or as it was then 
called, from the locality from whence it came, plaster 
of Paris. 

It is said first to have been used for agricultural 
purposes, at least in modern times, by Mr. Meyer, a 
clergyman, in Germany, in the year 1768. Its intro- 
duction into the United States is thus, in 1807, de- 
scribed by Judge Peters : " The first time I saw the 
agricultural effects of the gypsum, was several years 
before the commencement of our revolutionary war, 
on a city lot, belonging to, or occupied by Mr. Jacob 
Barge, on the commons of Philadelphia. He was the 
first person who applied the gypsum in America to 
agricultural purposes ; but on a small scale. He showed 
me a letter in German, from one who had gone over 
from Pennsylvania to Germany for redemptioners. The 
writer sent over a specimen of the gypsum, and desired 



ADDRESS. 13 

Mr. Barge to seek for land in this, then Province, in 
which it could be found. It was probably to assist in this 
object, among other considerations, that I was taken into 
a secret then utterly unknown to others in this country. 
Burr-mill stone makers and stucco plasterers were the 
only persons aquainted with any of its uses. From one 
of the former I procured a bushel, which enabled me 
to begin my agricultural experiments, and I faithfully 
pursued and extended them as I obtained more means." 
It was some time before this mineral was found in the 
United States, and farmers relied entirely upon impor- 
tations from Europe and Nova Scotia. Those from 
the latter place into the port of Philadelphia, soon 
amounted to fourteen thousand tons annually. This 
was prior to its use in England and France. It was 
important, not because it was the means of restoring 
sulphuric acid and lime to the soil, but because it laid 
the foundation of all good husbandry among us. Its 
special function was to promote the growth of clover, 
by which animals could be supported, manure made, 
and the farmer thus enabled to produce any desired 
crop. Its introduction created as great an excitement 
as that of guano, and were guano used for the same 
wise purposes it would effect as great a good. It is its 
mistaken employment, as a means of enabling the far- 
mer to take from his exhausted land its remaining 
sources of fertility in grain crops, that has excited pre- 
judice against its use. Before the introduction of plas- 
ter, irrigated meadows, were deemed essential to a 
farm; upon them alone could stock be raised. But 
plaster and clover changed all this and afforded abun- 
dant supplies for winter and summer food for all domestic 
animals. By the manure thus obtained, ample means 



14 ADDRESS. 

were afforded of renewing the original strength of the 
soil. For all the experience of England and the science 
of Belgium, results but in this — that there is no mode of 
increasing fertility equal to the consumption of the pro- 
duce of the land on the land itself. 

I have endeavored thus briefly to recall to your 
recollection, some of the past efforts of the Society in 
the cause of Agriculture. Although time and circum- 
stances have altered its position, and thrown upon other 
associations the duties it once assumed, never, since its 
inception, had it a better opportunity of being useful 
to the public than now. It is composed, as it always 
has been, not solely of practical cultivators of the soil, 
but of men of all professions, who, in the quaint lan- 
guage of its early history, have " a propensity" to agri- 
culture. It has been well said " that practical hus- 
bandry, depends for its improvement and prosperity, 
more on science and the acquirements of well-educated 
and public-spirited men who devote a portion of their 
means, time and talents to the principles of this first 
of arts, than on the limited experince and uninstructed 
examples of merely practical husbandmen." Jethro Trull, 
the father of modern husbandry, was a lawyer and the 
most prolific and agreable of writers on Agriculture, 
Arthur Young, commenced life as a merchant. At the pre- 
sent day, the man who has spent most in experiments on 
all points of agriculture, requiring practical determina- 
tion, is Mr. Mechi, a London tradesman and alderman. 
He starts with the assertion " that whatever does not 
pay in agriculture is not an improvement," and tests 
all his operations by that stern standard, the balance- 
sheet. This he publishes, and thus gives a warning or 
affords an example to his neighbors. This is what we 



ADDRESS. 15 

want here. You have the means, the intelligence, and 
the business capacity. You are not fettered by the 
prejudice of lives of routine, but are ready at once, not 
only to appreciate, but to follow the dictates of experi- 
ence modified by science. What our agriculturalists 
need, is example not precept. They cannot afford to 
hazard a crop, in attempting to prove the soundness of 
a theory. Prove the superiority of your process prac- 
tically, and you will have no lack of followers. The 
country is alive to the subject, and if false teaching is not 
allowed to bewilder practical men until in disgust they 
return to antiquated methods, the improvements in 
Agriculture will be marked and rapid. The fact has 
at last gone home to the cultivator of the soil, that 
to live, he must increase not his farm, but the yield 
of his farm. Land is at last dearer than labor and 
manure, and these it is that he must buy if he hopes for 
profit. This is the point where rude cultivation ends, 
and practice begins to accept the aid of science. In 
your first efforts to introduce improvements you may be 
unsuccessful, but remember that in Agriculture a well- 
established failure is only second to a success and he 
who expects to become a teacher, must not grumble at 
the incidents of his apprenticeship. 

The crying need of our agriculture is capital ; with- 
out that, none of its processes can be carried on in the 
right way or at the right time. In every other busi- 
ness of life this is fully recognized ; it is the first thought 
of the merchant, mechanic or manufacturer. When 
individual means are wanting, combination is resorted 
to ; and the corporations which flood our country are 
but iterations of the fact, that capital is the keystone of 
success in every undertaking. It is essential not only 



16 ADDRESS. 

to the profitable cultivation of poor lands, but especially 
necessary for the development of the richest. An eminent 
political economist of our own day and city was the first 
to correct the misapprehension on this subject, and to 
show that the best lands of a country are not exhausted 
first, but that they are cultivated last. The emigrant 
takes the land most easy of cultivation and leaves the 
soil whose richness covers its surface with timber or 
whose wealth is concealed by floods, to the man of 
science and capital who succeeds him. 

In encouraging the expenditure of capital upon land 
as a profitable investment, I do not desire to delude the 
citizen with the idea that by building a town residence 
in a ten-acre field, instead of on a town lot, he can live 
in it and receive six per cent, upon his outlay. I 
do not wish to intimate that the weekly mowing of 
a lawn, or the daily hoeing of gravel walks, are opera- 
tions attended with much pecuniary advantage. This, 
it is true, is spending capital on land, but its remunera- 
tion is not in money. Let us avoid confounding country 
seats with farms, or expenditure for pleasure with those 
for profit. By not keeping this distinction in view 
we are often rendered dissatisfied and Agriculture meets 
with unmerited reproach. 

The expenditure must be applied to remedy the 
defects, and to renew or retain the fertility of your soil. 
As an example of the first, I would mention for in- 
stance Drainage. 

It is not necessary as they have lately done in Hol- 
land, to drain a lake thirty-three miles in circumference 
to obtain 40,000 acres of arable land, — we have quite 
enough already. I do not allude to the drainage of 
overflowed lands, although fortunes are awaiting the 



ADDRESS. 17 

men who will undertake this in the environs of our 
own city, but it is the drainage of what are technically 
called " high lands," lands never overflowed. This has 
been made a matter of national importance in England, 
and it is said to be the only instance of successful 
government interference in matters of private interest. 
By a series of acts, commencing in 1840, persons having 
limited interests in land are allowed to encumber them, 
to a certain amount, for the purpose of drainage, and are 
authorized to obtain the money therefor from the pub- 
lic coffers. If, for instance, a person owning only a life 
interest in land, desires to drain it, he can borrow the 
money on mortgage, arranging the payments in such a 
way, as that it may be entirely paid off in from twenty- 
five to fifty years. In case of his death during that 
period, successive occupiers of the land are obliged to 
continue the payments till the mortgage is satisfied ; 
so much is the value of the land supposed to be increas- 
ed for all the parties interested in it. These acts have 
been already taken advantage of to the extent of 
twenty millions of dollars, in addition to the vast sums 
expended from private sources. By drainage, they mean 
drainage with pipes or tiles, which experience proves is 
the only thorough or permanent method. Whether they 
should be deep and far apart, or shallow and frequent, 
have been subjects of much discussion. The prevailing 
method, that introduced by Mr. Smith of Deanston, 
is from three to four feet deep and from fifteen to sixty 
feet apart. What is the proper depth or distance for us, 
is for experience to determine. 

The effects which drainage produces, are precisely 
those which our American wants require. Our two 

great enemies are excessive cold and excessive heat. 

2 



18 ADDRESS. 

Both fatal to shallow cultivation. The first freezing out 
or winter killing our grain when young, and the last dis- 
appointing us of a crop when almost ready for the 
harvest. The few inches of surface soil is saturated 
with water, the frost comes, the soil is thrown up into 
honey combs and the roots with it, or else it is baked with 
the sun, and the roots striving in vain to strike into the 
impenetrable soil beneath, are dried up. Mr. John John- 
son of New York, who had for some years been experi- 
menting very thoroughly with drainage, having in 1851, 
sixteen miles in operation, and who had on drained 
clay raised the largest crop of corn ever produced in 
Seneca County, testified that this freezing out was en- 
tirely cured. That on his clay soil " not a square foot 
of clover froze out ;" and though, before, " many acres of 
wheat were lost on the upland from that cause and 
none would grow in the lowland, now there is no loss 
at all." The water is not retained by the hard pan 
upon which the plough year after year slides but sinks 
below the roots. 

Then as to drought. It is really incredible from 
what a depth the roots will draw moisture, where 
they are at full liberty to range. Mr. Cobbett asserted 
that lucerne would send its roots thirty feet into a dry 
bottom, and Mr. Mechi boasts of parsnips thirteen feet 
six inches long. Making every allowance for excep- 
tional cases, the roots of nearly all plants will readily 
run from three to four feet deep, in ground drained and 
subsoiled. The same process which facilitates the pas- 
sage of water, pulverisation, increases the capacity of 
the soil to retain moisture. A thoroughly pulverized 
soil will retain more water than a compact one, just as 
a sponge with its pores open will hold more than when 



ADDRESS. 19 

tightly compressed. There is no fear of making your 
land too dry ; you cannot drain out of land any water 
that it is advisable should be retained. Fill a flower- 
pot with earth, and endeavor to drain as much water 
out of it, as you pour into it. You will find that 
it cannot be done, and that all that you withdraw is 
the excess over saturation and is merely what would 
be stagnant and therefore injurious. The different soils 
have been found by experiment to have the capacity of 
holding water in the following ratio : 
One hundred pounds of soil will hold by attraction as 
follows: Sand 25 pounds of water, 

Loamy soil 40 " " 

Clay loam 50 " " 

Pure clay 70 
The returns to the New York Agricultural Society, 
after the great drought of 1854, were almost unanimous, 
that drained land had stood the drought better than the 
undrained. The other effects of drainage are valuable 
to farmers everywhere. It allows pulverisation ; pre- 
vents surface washing, enables you to plough earlier in 
the spring and later in the fall, supplies air to the roots 
and improves the quality of the crops. In no country 
do they trust so much to the weather as here. How 
many farmers go to all the expense of ploughing, manur- 
ing and seeding a field with the full conviction, that if 
the season is wet, they will obtain no crop'? With 
how many is it doubtful whether they will be able to 
plant in time for a favorable result. It is asserted by 
some, that all land is improved by draining, even that 
with a porous subsoil, but it is not as yet time for us to 
test this question; let us devote ourselves to land 
which certainly requires it. 



20 ADDRESS. 

There may be some, a happy few, whose lands require 
no drainage, and who therefore can afford us no exam- 
ple in that matter. To these I would suggest another 
point, to which scientific culture can be turned with 
great profit. I mean an investigation of the best rota- 
tion of crops. Judged by the European standard, and by 
the light which chemistry has shed upon the subject, 
our present system is most vicious. Arthur Young says, 
" that there is no circumstance which so strongly distin- 
guishes the knowledge of the present age, in the theory 
and practice of husbandry, in comparison with all for- 
mer periods, as the right management of the crops cul- 
tivated on arable land. Compared with this, all other 
articles are of very little importance. Unless this part of 
the farmer's conduct be well understood, the greatest 
exertion and improvement in other branches of his busi- 
ness lose their effect." The first plan of cultivation 
was, as you know, to raise the same crop upon the 
same ground as long as it would produce it to a profit. 
Then, to move to another spot of ground and pursue the 
same course. When removals came to be matters of 
serious moment, the log-hut became a house and land 
rose in value. Farmers commenced treating their lands 
as they did their beasts of burden, — they worked it for 
a season, and then gave it what they called " a rest." 
And, in spite of the loss of time, it was found that a 
greater amount of grain was obtained, when a field was 
allowed to be uncultivated for one year, than when it 
w r as successively cropped for two. This system of naked 
fallows as it was called, was long in vogue every where. 
It was soon found, however, that the analogy with the 
beasts would not hold ; for, although they would rest, 
the land would not, though the husbandman was will- 



ADDRESS. 21 

ing. It would not produce grain, but would pro- 
duce weeds. It was then suggested, that as the land 
would produce something, it was evident that its fer- 
tility was only exhausted for the production of a cer- 
tain species of plants, and that others of a different 
character might therefore be cultivated with profit. 
Clover was tried, and with the most marked success. 
The land which refused to raise two grain crops in suc- 
cession, freely yielded one grain and one clover crop. 
Perfection was now supposed to be reached, we had the 
grain for ourselves and the grass for our cattle ; the 
consumption of the one enabling us to manure the 
other. The land, however, rebelled against this, and 
became, as it was called, " clover sick," in other words, 
became exhausted of its fertility for clover. Other 
crops were then substituted, and the land yielded a sat- 
isfactory return. It was finally found that a certain 
interval, more or less long, must elapse before the same 
ground would produce the same crop, although inter- 
mediate crops of a different character might be safely 
introduced. 

From the result of these observations, a system of 
rotation of crops has been established. This should be 
modified by soil, climate and situation, but the same 
general principles are every where applicable. Expe- 
rience has taught us, that the more closely plants re- 
semble one another, the less are they fitted to be plan- 
ted in immediate succession. The more dissimilar the 
plants therefore, the better the rotation. You do not 
seem to change this law by the application of manure, 
although you apparently replace all the substances ta- 
ken from the soil. In all countries, therefore, where 
agriculture is at all advanced, they alternate their grain 



22 ADDRESS. 

crops with root crops. They cultivate, ameliorate and 
shade their land, by peas, beans and broad-leaved vine 
crops. They follow a crop requiring large applications 
of manure, with one not so dependent on its application. 
Recognizing the truth of these principles, as we all do, 
what is our practice % Take, for instance, the " old 
York and Lancaster rotation," as good as any generally 
pursued. After a grass field has been mowed or pas- 
tared for two or three years, it is broken up and plan- 
ted with Indian corn ; this is succeeded by oats or bar- 
ley, immediately after the harvesting of which, the 
ground is manured, ploughed, and sown with wheat 
and Timothy grass, upon which clover is sown in the 
spring. We have here three grain crops in immediate 
succession, followed by the most exhausting of all grass 
crops, — Timothy. The ameliorating crop, clover, has 
disappeared before the field is again ploughed, and we 
turn under not a clover sod, but a Timothy sod. Indian 
corn performs, it is true, some of the functions of a fal- 
low crop, in its requirement of thorough cultivation, 
but the shading of the freshly exposed soil, and the 
deep piercing and opening of it by tuberous and tap- 
rooted plants, and the turning under of green crops, are 
all wanting. The rotation is liable to another objection. 
You manure your wheat with fresh manure, in every 
other country deemed improper, and you plant two 
other crops to grow with it. Every field, too, on the 
farm is put through the same course, no matter how 
great the variety of soil may be. 

The rotation is undoubtedly a convenient one, 
and that wonderful plant Indian corn, performs so 
many and various functions, that we feel no need of a 
change. But is it the best for the land \ if not, it is 



ADDRESS. 23 

not the best for the owner. The steady decrease of our 
wheat crops here and their constant increase in England 
would seem to indicate that it is not. It is well wor- 
thy of the most thorough investigation ; and even if it 
should be found that a root crop is not as valuable as a 
grain crop, we must not forget, in our comparison, that 
it is not to be valued for itself alone, but for its bene- 
ficial effect upon the land and upon other crops. 

In our country, the only one where chivalrous no- 
tions about women still prevail, we are debarred from 
their labor in the field, which is one reason why crops 
requiring to be hoed are so little cultivated. In the 
first English work on husbandry, published by Sir An- 
thony Fitzherbert, a judge and a farmer, in the year 
1522, he says, — "It is the duty of the wife to winnow 
all manner of corn, to make malt, to wash and wring, 
to make hay, to shear corn, and in time of need to help 
her husband to fill the muckwain or dung cart; to 
drive the plough, to load corn, hay and such other, 
and to go a ride to market ; to sell butter, cheese, milk, 
eggs, chickens, capons, hens, pigs, geese and all man- 
ner of corn." 

After she had got through this, I presume, although 
our author does not expressly say so, she had the rest 
of the day to herself. This is rather more than is re- 
quired of an English woman at the present day, for Mr. 
Stephens, expressly in the last edition of his valuable 
work on the Farm, says, — " Turning dung is not cleanly 
work for women, their petticoats being apt to be much 
soiled in the trench by the dung upon both sides, al- 
though it is somewhat obviated by the plan which the 
Berwickshire women adopt of tieing the bottom of their 
petticoats with the garter, just below the knee." How 



24 ADDRESS. 

this would comport with the present style of dress, I do 
not feel competent to decide. Proper as our prejudices 
are, against the employment of women for any such pur- 
pose, there are many occupations about a farm, which 
would conduce more to their health, and infinitely more to 
their morals, than those in which they are often engaged 
in large cities. But there is little prospect of tempt- 
ing female labor into the field here, for any purpose. I 
state this, however, with some diffidence, for so great 
is the progress of opinion in our country, that some fe- 
male Convention may decide that hoeing turnips is one 
of their inalienable rights, of which the cruelty of man 
has deprived them, in which case it will, doubtless be 
asserted with becoming spirit. 

There are various other points, upon which the 
members of our Society, might, with great advantage 
to the public, devote a portion of their time and means. 
Chemistry has done much for Agriculture, in explain- 
ing processes heretofore empirically conducted, but the 
great bar to its usefulness is the want of accurate and 
thorough experiments in the field. Not such experi- 
ments as those with which our Journals are often filled, 
which, overlooking weight, measure, and surrounding 
circumstances, give us a result which may be attributed 
to a dozen different causes, but such as will establish 
beyond peradventure one well-defined conclusion. 
Collect facts, and let chemistry explain them. Many 
distinguished chemists, from inability to obtain these 
field experiments, have endeavored to deduce systems 
of agriculture from experiments in their laboratories. 
These had soon to be abandoned, and, by their failure, 
did much injury to the cause of Science. A chemist 
can no more tell us, from the chemical constituents of 



ADDRESS. 25 

dead plants, the secrets of vegetable life than he can 
explain the vital functions of man by analyzing the con- 
tents of the catacombs of Egypt. An analysis of the soil 
of a small patch of ground, accompanied by personal in- 
spection, may lead, in some cases, to useful suggestions. 
But that a chemist, by the analysis of six inches of the 
surface soil of a field, can afford any useful suggestions 
to its cultivator, is more, I think, than agriculturists 
should believe. The different constituents of different 
portions of the surface, the subsoil, the aspect, the 
former treatment, are all most material, and all unrep- 
resented. The old Grecian who carried about a brick 
as a specimen of a house he wanted to sell, would not, 
certainly, be more absurd, than the man who should 
attempt to show the condition of his farm by the exhi- 
bition of five pounds of its soil. Let us treat Science 
fairly, let us confine ourselves to our department, which 
is observation, and let our reports be such as will stand 
the test of scientific examination. We may then hope, 
in our department, to share the benefits which Science 
has so largely afforded to all others. 

We have been told, lately, that politicians are going 
to do something for Agriculture. A not very hopeful 
announcement, to my apprehension. It has heretofore 
escaped congressional treatment, and I trust sincerely 
it may now be able to survive it. What will be done 
about it, I am not bold enough to conjecture; but that 
it will be sufficiently talked about, I feel morally certain. 
To the farmer, whose vocation is work and not talk, 
and who is accustomed to the beautiful but silent 
operations of Nature, the accepted mode of conducting 
the public business must indeed seem marvellous. 
The whole talent of the country appears to have 



26 ADDRESS. 

degenerated into talk and endless disputation. Ward 
meetings, county conventions, legislative assemblies, 
congressional bodies, all fields for never-ending discus- 
sion. And then the unfortunate facilities for the 
dissemination of this frightful amount of palaver ! 
Weekly presses, daily presses, hourly presses, steno- 
graphers and phonographers, all mad to publish this 
mass of so-called information, to the utter bewilder- 
ment of the public. The post-office reports a defici- 
ency of six million nine hundred and sixty-six thousand 
and nine dollars on account of its onerous labors, and 
we are to be still more taxed that documents may 
carry discontent to the remotest borders of the Repub- 
lic, by awakening the people to the consciousness of 
wrongs never before felt. 

Carlyle, in an essay published in England, some 
years ago, so graphically describes this condition of 
affairs, that I cannot refrain from quoting it. " Proba- 
bly," he says, " there is not a more distracted phantasm 
than your common-place eloquent speaker, as he is 
found on platforms, in parliaments, on Kentucky 
stumps, at tavern dinners, in windy, empty, insincere 
times like ours. The excellent ' stump orator,' as 
our admiring Yankee friends define him, he who in 
any concurrent set of circumstances can start forth, 
mount upon his stump, his rostrum, Tribune, place in 
parliament or other ready elevation, and pour forth 
from him his appropriate ' excellent speech,' his inter- 
pretation of the said circumstances, in such manner as 
poor windy mortals around him shall cry bravo to — he 
is not an artist I can much admire, as matters go. 
Alas ! he is, in general, merely the windiest mortal of 
them all; and is admired for being so, into the bargain. 



ADDRESS. 27 

Not a windy blockhead there, who kept silent, but is 
better off than this excellent stump orator. Better off 
for a great many reasons ; for this reason, were there 
no other : the silent one is not admired ; the silent one 
suspects, partly admits that he is a kind of blockhead, 
from which salutary self-knowledge the excellent stump 
orator is debarred. By stump orator and constitutional 
palaver, however perfected, my hopes of recovery have 
long since vanished. Not by them, I should imagine, 
but by something far the reverse of them, shall we 
return to truth and God." 

It is for you, then — men having a stake in the 
country — men removed from the turmoil and exacerba- 
tion of public life, and who, by being removed from 
them, can best estimate the effect of public measures — 
"to take care that the Republic receives no detriment." 
You cannot put off the obligations of freemen in your 
retirements. The burden of government is upon each 
and all of us, and although we may shrink from its 
duties, we cannot evade its responsibilities. 

In all the great emergencies of our country, and 
they have been many, she has been prolific in great 
men : men fitted for the field, the Senate, or the Cabi- 
net, soldiers, patriots, statesmen, — in which she is now 
so lamentably deficient, that I have lately thought that 
she like her soil begins to suffer from exhaustion and 
is now lying in " fallow ;" one of those old-fashioned 
fallows, when, not being occupied by useful plants, 
noxious weeds are in full luxuriance. Look around 
us ! In every field you can see their gorgeous and 
supple forms bowing and waving before every breeze 
of popular favor ; but when an honest blast of in- 
dignation would reach them, lying prone to the earth 



28 ADDRESS. 

and almost ignoring their own existence. The storm 
over, they again rise up, tenacious as ever of the place 
from which they draw sustenance and support. 

There is but one remedy for all this — an agricultural 
one — plough them under ; and the lowly virtues of 
honesty and integrity will again show their heads, and 
the face of the land be gladdened. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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